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Government Communications Privacy Security United States

US Defense Agency That Secures Trump's Communications Confirms Data Breach (forbes.com) 66

Posted by BeauHD from the tip-of-the-iceberg dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Forbes: The Department of Defense agency responsible for securing the communications of President Trump has suffered a data breach. Here's what is known so far. The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) describes itself as a combat support agency of the Department of Defense (DoD) and is tasked with the responsibility for supporting secure White House communications, including those of President Trump. As well as overseeing Trump's secure calls technology, DISA also establishes and supports communications networks in combat zones and takes care of military cyber-security issues. It has also confirmed a data breach of its network, which exposed data affecting as many as 200,000 users.

First picked up by Reuters, disclosure letters dated February 11 have been sent out to those whose personal data may have been compromised. Although it is not clear which specific servers have been breached, nor the nature of the users to whom the letters have been sent, that an agency with a vision to "connect and protect the war-fighter in cyberspace" should suffer such an incident is concerning, to say the least. While many of the details surrounding this breach are likely to remain, understandably, confidential, given the nature of the DISA work, the letter itself has already been published on Twitter by one recipient. Signed by Roger S. Greenwell, the chief information officer at DISA, the letter revealed the breach took place between May and July last year, and information including social security numbers may have been compromised as a result. It also stated that there is no evidence that any personally identifiable information (PII) has been misused as a result. The letter does, however, confirm that DISA will be offering free credit monitoring services to those who want it.
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US Defense Agency That Secures Trump's Communications Confirms Data Breach More

US Defense Agency That Secures Trump's Communications Confirms Data Breach

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  • Assume China (Score:2, Interesting)

    by currently_awake ( 1248758 )
    Given Trumps current dispute with China, I expect they will soon be blamed. And definately not Russia.

    • Re:Assume China (Score:4, Funny)

      by Spazmania ( 174582 ) on Friday February 21, 2020 @07:57PM (#59752774) Homepage

      Can't spell disaster without DISA.

    • Given Trumps current dispute with China, I expect they will soon be blamed. And definitely not Russia.

      Well... he's already fired everyone who suggested Russia's done anything bad, so probably.

      • No, he hasn't.

        He fired the ones who testified that they thought that Trump had done something bad.

        In every case, without any actual evidence to show.

        If I were CEO of a company, and an employee did that to me, I'd fire their ass, too! In a heartbeat.

    • Iran?

      Trump killed General Qassem Soleimani with a drone strike.

  • Who cares? (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by weilawei ( 897823 )

    The court jester got hacked, big whoop.

    Does he actually do anything useful or important? If he's entirely negative productivity, wouldn't his being hacked be beneficial to the nation?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      It's not clear that Trump actually got hacked. The letter just said that somebody (probably plural) did. And one of their jobs is to secure Trump's electronics.

      Yeah, my first take was that Trump had gotten hacked, and I was willing to speculate that it was his own fault, but that's not was I actually read.

  • A sucker bet (Score:3)

    by AlanObject ( 3603453 ) on Friday February 21, 2020 @08:20PM (#59752826)

    What do you think the odds are that there are dozens of Trump retainers running around the government using private e-mail servers for government business to avoid oversight?

    As far as the Big Man himself is concerned does anyone believe that he would follow a security protocol?

    Outraged Republicans: 0

    • What do you think the odds are that there are dozens of Trump retainers running around the government using private e-mail servers for government business to avoid oversight?

      Outraged Republicans: 0

      That was really a Hillary thing, wasn't it?

      Right after the election and before inauguration some of Trumps kids were still using personal E-mail, until they got the training seminars and then they switched over, but other than that there's been no reports of Trump or anyone in his administration doing that.

      This is the sort of thing that would make headlines.

      Do you have any references?

      • I thought Jared K was using WhatsApp to talk to MBS as well?

        Hope he also didn't get the rigged pic that was sent to Bezos!

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Of course her server got hacked. Are you kidding? You think various state actors around the world were completely unaware of her bathroom mail server and none of them took a shot at it and those who did all failed? Really? Because the crack IT guys at some small ISP she hired fended off the hackers from multiple governments? Let's see, who most likely had full access to her server in her bathroom: Russia, Israel, France, China, North Korea, Britain and several US agencies. Likely had access: Iran, som

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fred911 ( 83970 )

        '2020 election is not about reelecting a president'.... ' It seems more about grifting, bitching, and breaking things'

        No, it's all about the money. Look at your investments and tell me he's not protected or assured value. The voters elected him on that platform and [amazingly] he's protected that part. The rest... well questionably not as successful. But feelings don't pay the bill.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by I75BJC ( 4590021 )
        "Hillary was stupid at a time there was at least somewhat less focus on security, "

        I guess you never worked for the USA Government because, if you do or did, you would realize what utter bullshit your statement is. Don't try to relieve Hill of her Responsibility to follow the rules and regulations for securing USA Government business.

        By the way, doesn't Trump have multiple phones just like Obama had? I think the news reports bear this out and isn't it possible to have different phones for different p

    • This is literally a conspiracy theory.

      It's sad watching people submerge themselves in idiocy like this. I really had no idea that Trump had hurt people so badly that they would lower themselves to his level of abasement, just so that they could have an outlet for their emotions. Sentence 1 is a complete fabrication. Sentence 2 is a statement with no proof. Sentence 3 is a conclusion based on the idea that 1 and 2 are obviously true.

      You see these everywhere these days and it does tremendous damage to th

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fred911 ( 83970 )

        'It's sad watching people submerge themselves in idiocy like this'

        Hey, there will be no non-partisan, common sense discussion here. You must be a hippy...

  • US intel honeycombed (Score:3)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Friday February 21, 2020 @08:25PM (#59752830) Homepage Journal

    Look, I hate to break the bad news to you, but all levels of the US are now honeycombed with both active and passive Russian operatives and a few Chinese and Saudi operatives too.

    There's a reason why we turned off the spigot. We can't trust you.

    Wake me when you clean house.

    P.S.: We can operate. And we are.

    (caveat: my We is a reference to NATO intelligence and military, not to myself personally at this moment)

    • LOL. NATO. How comical and pathetically stupid. And yeah we get it: the Russians are the new boogeymen, and they are everywhere controlling everything. Had a bad cup of coffee? Must be the Russians! Wrong person elected? Must be the Russians!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dpilot ( 134227 )

        I know you're spouting the New Line, but look at who is sewing chaos in the world, interfering with elections in the US and elsewhere - it's the Russians. Just because Democrats are saying it doesn't mean it isn't true. Not that long ago the Republicans were even more strongly anti-USSR, basically anti-the-same-people, since Putin is former KGB.

        China doesn't sew chaos - their activities all make sense as pro-China. Iran may sew chaos, but it's all for their version of Islam and control over their own peo

        • Please explain exactly how Russia interfered in the 2016 election. For years I've heard this stated as fact without -any- description of what they actually allegedly did.

          • They ran less than $1million worth of ads on Facebook. Some of them were designed to fool people into trying to vote online or otherwise trying to make them miss election day.

            They may have also tried to crack (rather unsuccessfully) into electronic voting machines remotely.

            Overall, it was a feeble effort from what I've read. The only real scores were Hillary's email server and Podesta's email.

            • My favorite section of the link is Arousing conservative voters Conservative voters had a relationship with clinton for 25 years before she became the democratic nominee. I think most would have voted for a pet rock over Hillary Clinton. That 75% of registered religious conservative voters showed and pulled the trump lever in stead of the predicted 60% is no surprise to anyone who was in those circles. One candidate on video called the others base deplorables. This all gets laid at the feet of a
            • Ok, thanks. This is all based on reports from the same people who told us Iraq had WMD. What evidence is there of any real interference?

      • And yeah we get it: the Russians are the new boogeymen, and they are everywhere controlling everything.

        Found the person under 30 who slept through 20th century history class.

    • Yes. It's all the Russians and Chinese and Saudi. Never mind that elephant in the room.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      They like their other nations, faiths, cults, banned groups, politics more than the USA.
      Dont walk the life story of people seeking work for the mil/gov and allow people in for non academic reasons?
      US security is like what the UK had from 1920 to 1975. None.

  • Ummm (Score:2)

    by PPH ( 736903 )

    This isn't necessarily about Trump getting hacked. This is about 'the people who secure Trump's communications' informing others for whom they provide information security that they have been hacked.

    Sort of old news in a way. DISA, the NSA, FBI and others keep an eye on key personnel. In a few cases, the people have already been informed. But depending on the nature of the hack, the responsible agencies have decided to keep mum about it, watch the hackers and see how much rope they can give them before the

  • All of DOD (Score:4, Informative)

    by daten ( 575013 ) on Friday February 21, 2020 @08:58PM (#59752916)
    DISA provides networks for all of DOD. Everything in the .mil domain. NIPR net, SIPR net and others. This has as much to do with Trump as it would of Comcast or AT&T got hacked. This isn't specific to the president or the White House.
    • How much of a breach was this though? It seems counterintuitive to host secret intelligence on a secret network that is attached to the open Internet.
      • The NIPR (unclass) and SIPR (secret) parts are seperate. NIPR is connected to the internet but routes through various security devices. SIPR is essentially air gapped. It would be a policy violation to store any classified data on NIPR.

        • More indicative is the fact that the letter says that personal information has potential been accessed, which shows that it is an unclassified breach. They don't store employee records like that on the high side.

          Well, except for covers - but if that were the case, you would not be hearing about the breach like this.

  • The DISA network is the second largest on the planet.

  • I say this because this is the President of the United States that has been hacked and others. NOT Donald Trump. Do you see the difference? If not you need to see a shrink. VERY soon.

    • ... in the 90s, when logging into their servers was exclusively done for bragging rights,

      I can tell you that we absolutely logged into more than just their web servers.
      Fun times for innocent kids tagging along after stumbling upon certain newsroups and IRC channels.
      (You'd be surprised how boring and verbose most top secret stuff is, though.)

      I recommend not posting anything by Randall Munroe, as he is a "winning" combination of half-clueful cluelessness popular with the clueless, and smug notorious blackeyer

  • It's called Twitter.

  • What did they expect? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The Republicans keep blocking every attempt to improve security. Are we really surprised that there's been yet another breach?

    Meanwhile, Barr and the security agencies keep insisting that they need a backdoor into all encryption. The either have no clue or just don't care that it would get hacked and absolutely everything would be exposed.

  • Intelligence agencies say Trump is being helped by Russia.

    The next day something happens so Trump can say he's the victim.

  • connect and protect the war-fighter in cyberspace...

    So now all military personnel are always fighting a war?
    What war? Does this war have a name? The EastAsia war?

    The term war-fighter has been brought to you by the makers of Homeland.
    The future turned out so lame.

  • The Department of Defense agency responsible for securing the communications of President Trump has suffered a data breach.

    Doesn't Trump use an off-the-shelf iPhone?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

      I don't recall them allowing any POTUS to have an off the shelf smart phone. I remember BHO had to give his up. There was a story that DJT was using his own android and he confirmed that his phone was deactivated.

      Sucks being POTUS in some ways. Hard to go out on the town with the boys for a beer.

  • First, this article has nothing to do with Trump. Second, based on the letter it looks like payroll information on DOD employees was leaked. Third, for DISA controlled networks there are three main types. Niprnet, Siprnet,, and Jwics. Nipr is for non classfied info. It is kept as private as possible. Sipr is for Classfied information typically at the secret level. More care and precautions are taken for securing sipr than what you would use for nipr communications. Lastly we have JWICS. This is the network

  • ... about the mexican or indian or $stereotype that got stung by a scorpion in a blanket when he fell asleep on an airplane, and the scorpion died quickly and painfully.

    Whoever broke into Trump's oral brown "treasure" trove will be forever damaged. Like seeing Cthulhu with your own eyes.

    If he's lucky, he'll have ended up like Al Bundy when seeing his mother in law naked in the shower: "I'm blind! I'm blind! I think my eyes were trying to protect my heart!"

  • ... for keeping the President’s communication secure!

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